Execution cannot be pardoned: How Peter the Great dealt with his wife's lover
Execution cannot be pardoned: How Peter the Great dealt with his wife's lover

Video: Execution cannot be pardoned: How Peter the Great dealt with his wife's lover

Video: Execution cannot be pardoned: How Peter the Great dealt with his wife's lover
Video: Nastya learns to joke with dad - YouTube 2024, November
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Peter I to be executed
Peter I to be executed

Perhaps everyone has heard of the Kunstkamera - a museum to which, on the orders of Peter I, strange "things" were brought from all over Russia. Its walls keep numerous cultural relics, as well as the famous bodies of "freaks" - people and animals with physical disabilities. But sometimes ordinary people also ended up in the Kunstkamera. One of them was William Mons - a handsome court man, with whom, according to rumors, the wife of Peter the Great betrayed.

Willim Ivanovich Mons - chamberlain and lover of Empress Catherine
Willim Ivanovich Mons - chamberlain and lover of Empress Catherine
Moscow house of Anna Mons - the sister of Willim Mons. A. N. Benoit, 1909
Moscow house of Anna Mons - the sister of Willim Mons. A. N. Benoit, 1909

Willim Mons was still a child when his parents moved from Westphalia to Russia. Sisters Matryona and Anna became prominent ladies at the imperial court and, as they say, the mistresses of Peter I.

Willim grew up to be a strong handsome man, whom the first beauties of the capital St. Petersburg were staring at. He took part in several military campaigns and became close to Peter, becoming his adjutant.

Catherine I - Russian Empress and wife of Peter the Great. Jean-Marc Nattier, 1717
Catherine I - Russian Empress and wife of Peter the Great. Jean-Marc Nattier, 1717

Thanks to the influence of the sisters, Willim received an honorary position under the Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna. He became her chamberlain, and then chamberlain. Willim Mons managed the empress's finances and kept up her correspondence. During a decade of staying with the imperial family, Willim Mons collected a fortune, received estates, and built several houses in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Portrait of Peter the Great. Paul Delaroche, 1838
Portrait of Peter the Great. Paul Delaroche, 1838

The good life for Willim Mons ended abruptly in November 1724. He was arrested for alleged financial embezzlement, embezzlement from the treasury and bribery. In fact, as they said in high society, the tsar found his wife, Empress Catherine, alone with Mons in an unambiguous situation.

Peter I at the execution of his mistress Mary Hamilton
Peter I at the execution of his mistress Mary Hamilton

Despite the intercession of Catherine, 30-year-old Mons was chained and tried. He was beheaded in front of a crowd in downtown St. Petersburg.

Kunstkammer on an engraving of 1741
Kunstkammer on an engraving of 1741
Alcoholized exhibits in the Kunstkamera
Alcoholized exhibits in the Kunstkamera

Catherine's betrayal greatly worsened Peter's attitude towards her. The emperor, himself known for numerous adventures "to the left," ordered Mons' head to be cut off and alcoholized in a jar. For several days the vessel stood in the Empress's chambers, and then it was taken to the Kunstkamera.

Peter and Catherine no longer ate at the same table and even slept in separate rooms. But only three months passed and the dying Peter forgave his wife.

Mons's head was kept in the Kunstkamera for another half a century, until it was identified and buried. So one of the many love triangles featuring Peter I.

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